Don't Start It: AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Dersingham
AdBlue in the diesel tank? Then keep your engine off — and the ignition too. Water with urea mixed in it: that is AdBlue. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor mixes, and nothing happens until the motor sucks it round. In Dersingham, AdBlue in a diesel tank found before your motor runs normally means a drain and a thorough flush, right where the car is. No step comes before calling 0333 366 0103.
What to do straight away, Dersingham: AdBlue in your diesel tank
Things to do:
- Take your keys out, and so no one switches your ignition on.
- Hazards on, if moving traffic is at all close.
- The empty bottle or your receipt shows us the fluid and the amount, so don't throw it away.
- Give us a postcode starting PE31 6, or whatever street is closest, and the van reaches you straight — so call from wherever you are.
Do not do these:
- Not even briefly, and not to roll your car: your motor remains off.
- Don't switch your ignition on. On plenty of diesels that alone runs the fuel pump.
- No extra fuel added. The AdBlue won't mix, and so it's pointless.
- Keep the vehicle where it is rather than driving it anywhere, even a short distance up Post Office Road.
- Beside the road, don't try draining it on your own.
The attendants on duty at any Dersingham forecourt — the Esso included — will normally help rolling it clear if you ask. On your own drive, do not move it at all.
AdBlue in a diesel tank, and what it does there
Not the engine but your exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. It goes into its own tank and is sprayed into your exhaust gas to fresh it. Nothing in an injection pump is made for this liquid — and no part of it was meant to travel through one.
Poured in with the diesel, it keeps separate instead of blending — quite different from fuel. It's heavier than diesel, so it sinks and collects at the bottom of the tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. A vehicle topped up on a drive in West Newton yesterday evening and left unstarted counts as the simple case. No pump has sucked the AdBlue up so far — though once the engine turns, that's what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of that tank.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the components it gets to for as long as it remains there. Where the AdBlue is in the lines, waiting overnight in Dersingham leaves things worse. In the tank only, waiting costs nothing. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water gives no lubrication, and that is a second form of harm.
Why AdBlue in a diesel is regularly more major than petrol
Petrol pumped into a diesel on Lavender Hill Service Station's forecourt leaves your fuel thin — that's the whole problem. Blended through the diesel and left still, it's no threat for now; running your motor does the damage.
AdBlue in a diesel is a problem of the wrong substance altogether. It does not burn, and so it can't just be run through. Deposits and corrosion remain after the following tankful, and AdBlue separates back out of the diesel, and so thinning it can't work. Hence the flush counts more, and turning the key "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other mistake — in Shernborne or the centre of Dersingham equally.
As with petrol, there is good news. If your motor hasn't run, the AdBlue is still in the tank, and your tank is the simplest part of a fuel system to clear, wherever across Norfolk your car is standing.
Dersingham: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
In dim light, two caps together — the AdBlue cap and the diesel one, occasionally behind one flap — can look the same. No one intends it; plenty of designs allow it. A bottle picked up when heading home and poured in outside the house, instead of at the forecourt, is the typical route.
It tends to happen in a couple of familiar ways. Halfway through the morning drop-off, the dashboard flags it up, and outside Dersingham Primary School the refill is rushed. Near Hunstanton Road, someone pours a container in on the drive in the evening. Or your car is topped up in the car park outside The Feathers, in poor light, by somebody who has never opened that flap before.
The least known vehicles get it the most — rentals, brand-new ones, fleet ones, and the spare motor of a home with one of each fuel types. Same mistake, an identical first step — leave it off — wherever you are in Dersingham or the remainder of Norfolk.
Dersingham: started your engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank?
If so, the AdBlue is no longer in your tank. Given any running time, it goes on to the high-pressure pump and each injector, having passed via the filter and pipework.
You may notice the engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Dersingham Recreation Ground or halfway across Dersingham. Stop when safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off rather than testing it again. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
If you were on the A1(M), under 50 miles from Dersingham, come off at the next junction and stop somewhere sensible instead of pressing on.
Each mile pushes the AdBlue deeper in. That's why a hop across Dersingham to park beside Dersingham Methodist Church and a drive of under 50 miles towards Ely are such separate jobs. Tell us about how far it had come.
Once the engine has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has come to a stop. Very seldom does it leave lasting damage if it is noticed quickly.
What emptying AdBlue from a diesel involves around Dersingham
The vehicle stays put, whether that's a street beside Dersingham Social Club, a drive, a layby or a filling station around Dersingham, and our van comes to it. Three answers shape the work, so before anything else we ask which fluid got in, roughly what quantity, plus whether your motor has run.
Next, emptying that tank on the spot takes out the polluted diesel along with the AdBlue in one go. A full flush matters far more after AdBlue than with petrol, since what remains will not wash out on its own. A test of your car comes last, after fresh diesel goes in and your filter gets flushed or, if needed, replaced. If your engine has not run, the majority of jobs take about half an hour once our engineers are there. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they run quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
Priming the system with clean diesel comes at the end. After that our technicians fire it up and you set off, whether from a parking space by Kings Lynn or a drive in Dersingham. Before leaving, we check it is running smoothly with clean diesel in. We do it all wherever your car has stopped, and it never needs to go to a garage. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report afterwards, which is what insurers want.
About Dersingham
Dersingham is a coastal village in north-west Norfolk, situated near the Sandringham Estate and approximately 13 metres above sea level. Dersingham has a mix of housing types, but detached homes are predominant, and it is located near other small communities such as Ingoldisthorpe and Southgate. Dersingham is within commuting distance of larger cities like Ely and is about 96 miles from London. Dersingham remains a popular residential area due to its rural setting and proximity to the coast.
Dersingham and Norfolk: AdBlue drains across the area
Throughout the PE postcode area, the teams taking AdBlue jobs around Dersingham reach most of Norfolk too, Sandringham, Ingoldisthorpe and Southgate included. Phone and check rather than guess when you're close to a county line, or anywhere tricky to explain.
A mobile service suits Dersingham, a coastal village: there's no need to bring your vehicle to us, since we drain it on the spot, in a drive, a side street, a parking area or a forecourt.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Dersingham
Not one flat figure would be fair, since every job differs. What moves the price is, first of all, whether the motor has run and for how long; then how much AdBlue got in; and then where the car is and whether our van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open driveway than in a tight space behind Saint Cecilia's.
For that reason, each enquiry from Dersingham begins with the same trio — what was put in, what quantity, if it ran — ahead of any figure. Those answers narrow a range down to a single number.
Priced by phone before the van sets out, it is paid for that day — card or phone, nothing in advance. Plenty of insurance policies include misfuelling cover, and so it's worth checking yours whilst we are on the way.
Dersingham: still alongside the car?
Then the most useful thing you can do is nothing to your car. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Say it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran, on 0333 366 0103. From there Petrol in Diesel takes over, across Dersingham or anywhere within Norfolk.